GP GFOA Annual Educational Conference

AGA ASMC Joint August Meeting

The Metro Area Chapter of AGA and the American Society of Military Comptrollers (ASMC) will be hosting a joint meeting on August 26th.

Featured speaker: Ms. Terri Schweiger from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Ms. Schweiger will present “Auditing for DHS and and Agent’s View of Immigration and Customs Enforcement  - ICE”

Time: 11:30-1:00 p.m. (1 hour of CPE applied for)

Cost: $16.00 for Members/non members - includes lunch

Location: Lo Sole Mio Restaurant

3001 S. 32nd Ave

Omaha, NE 68105

RSVP: Jude Liu at jliu@oppd.com by August 20th to secure your place at this educational lunch. To register and pay online please use the pay pal link through the Events calendar under events. Thanks! l

Don’t forget our Annual School Supply Drive! Bring your extra school supplies to this meeting.

Omaha Chapter to receive Two Chapter Awards at National PDC

For the first time, in a long time, our chapter stands to bring home two chapter awards at the PDC later this summer. Fantastic chapter news was released today from National AGA. Two of our chapter leaders will receive awards and recognition for their hard work as Omaha AGA leaders. See the letters below that were received today by Dan Walsh, CGFM Chair and Catherine Demes Maydew, Past President and RVP Elect Midwest Region.

Good morning, Dan, Catherine and Sara:

In the interest of time, we are e-mailing copies of all AGA 2010 Professional Development Conference Award letters to nominees and their nominators this year.

Please see the attached letter for the status of your chapter’s nomination for the AGA 2010 Chapter CGFM Award.

Good Afternoon, Catherine!

On behalf of the AGA National Awards Committee, as the Staff Liaison, I would like to congratulate you as the recipient of the AGA 2010 Chapter Service Award for Group E.

Congratulations to all the board for a successful Chapter year, it looks like we will be receiving a terrific award during the PDC in Orlando in July! Way to go team!

chapter-service-group-e-maydew

chapter-cgfm-group-e-omahametro

Omaha Chapter AGA and Bellevue University to Sponsor Course 1 of the CGFM Program

When: March 25, 2010

Where: Bellevue University Main campus

What: Course 1: Governmental Environment

The class fee includes the study guide (Course 1) and the first 10 paid members will receive a free exam (Course 1) voucher

Course Description:

This course describes the unique aspects of government and how those aspects differ from the private sector and nonprofit organizations. It is designed for accountants, auditors, budget professionals and controllers in government as well as academics and other professionals who have an interest in government. It is particularly appropriate for newly hired professionals.

Upon completing this course, you will have an understanding of:

• how governments are organized and structured;
• the legal aspects of governments;
• the importance of the budget process;
• the management cycle, and how the various stages are interrelated;
• how governments are financed;
• the role and structure of taxes;
• the purposes for issuing debt;
• what it means to be publicly accountable;
• the importance of ethics in government;
• specific skills and responsibilities of financial managers.

Course Content

The course consists of the following chapters:

1. Organization and structure of government.
2. Legal and other environmental aspects of government.
3. Interrelationships among planning, programming, budgeting, operations, accounting, reporting and auditing.
4. Governmental financing process.
5. Public accountability.
6. Ethics in government.
7. Financial management responsibilities and skills.

Prerequisite: None

Advance Preparation: None

Course Level: Basic

Delivery Method: Lecture, group discussion and exercises

Length: One day

CPE Credit: 8 hours

For additional information contact CGFM Chair Dan Walsh at WALSHMAIL@cox.net

To register and secure a spot in this class and ensure the class is held contact Russ Frietag rfreitag@esu3.org

Class subject to cancellation if less then 10 individuals sign up. Due date for registration February 24, 2010

A Tax Season Note From the IRS

See attached letter from the Nebraska Stakeholder Liaison regarding busy season information.

sl-fy10-filing-season-letter1

AGA IIA Joint Meeting

Join us January 21 (11:30- 1 p.m.) for a joint lunch meeting with the Institute of Internal Auditors at the Scott Conference Center 6510 Pine Street. UNO south campus. The speaker for the meeting is Professor Tim Bastian from Creighton University’s College of Business Economics Department.

To register and pay online use the link from the events page. Please RSVP by Monday January 18 to ensure space at the event.

AGA Awards Annual Accounting Scholarships

On Thursday September 17, Omaha Chapter of AGA awarded four area accounting students the chapter’s annual scholarships. The students are: Alexander Chernenkiy, from Metro Community College; Greg Willer, from Bellevue University; Courtney Tietjen, from Creighton University; and Michelle Abboud, from University of Nebraska at Omaha. We congratulate all area accounting students and celebrate their accomplishments in the accounting studies. We wish them all the best of luck in their future accounting careers.

AGA’s Citizen - Centric Reporting Initiative

n 2008, AGA surveyed the public on the effectiveness of government fiscal reporting. Eighty-nine percent said that, as taxpayers, they are entitled to transparent financial management information, and 57 percent said that government has an obligation to provide it. They further indicated that government is failing to meet its financial management reporting needs, and that poor performance has created a problem of trust between residents and their governments. The survey showed that governments need new innovative means of communication to overcome those challenges.

AGA’s citizen-centric reports are designed to help remedy this. The program is an easily adoptable reporting option for all governments, including guidelines for content, a design template and completed reports.

The AGA Citizen-Centric Government Reporting Initiative is steadily expanding. The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Defense as well as the U.S. Coast Guard have produced reports at the federal level. The states of Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington as well as cities and counties such as Saco, ME, Tallahassee, FL, Portland, OR, and Blount County, TN, have produced Citizen-Centric Reports to the benefit of their citizens. Many others are in the works.

We encourage you to take the initiative to work with your government employer or with the city, town or state where you live and persuade them to produce a similar report. AGA is ready and waiting to help with free consulting advice, a template and other tools to help you accomplish this goal. Please visitwww.agacgfm.org/citizen/construct.aspx or call Susan Fritzlen at 800.AGA.7211 for more details.

Performance - Based Management

Public officials can speed up and enhance government reforms and transparency through performance-based management (PBM) right now with modest changes to existing information systems. PBM integrates existing financial, operations and other data into eye-opening and actionable facts for enlightened decisions. It is able to consistently track cost and performance over time and improve predictive ability. PBM is flexible, so that different entities can tailor it to their needs and still give top leaders consistent, cross-government views of performance and the cost of creating societal value. Read the report.

2009 CFO Survey: Recovery and the Transparency Imperative

In spring 2009, nearly 500 government financial executives and managers from the United States and Canada participated in the 15th annual chief financial officer (CFO) survey sponsored by the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) and AGA Professional Corporate Partner Grant Thornton. Key topics for 2009 include economic recovery, transparency, what new CFOs need to know and annual financial statements. Read the report.